One of the best reasons to jailbreak has to be because the default Springboard just sucks at organizing hundreds of applications. I’d say there are seven major ways to organize your home screens using 3rd party applications: some can require extensive set-up, but some are as easy as installing and playing. Most of these apps and tweaks can be found on Cydia, unless otherwise specified.
Overboard – $1.99, Orbit – $1.99
If you just want to organize your home screens, or know all of your app icons at a glance, then either of these two apps will do the trick. They essentially function as a sort of iPhone Exposé, showing you thumbnails of each home screen and allowing you to easily jump to any one with a tap. My recommendation is Overboard by rpetrich, since stroughtonsmith doesn’t seem to be doing much with iPhone apps these days.
SpringJumps – Free
SpringJumps by ashikase is a great idea that I only discovered recently (thanks to SmokingApples): the app provides up to eight Springboard icons that can warp you to any page simply by tapping on them. The app is best used if you’re able to skin and place all of the Jump icons in the dock.
Infinidock – $0.99, Infiniboard – $1.99
Another way to simply modify the default Springboard is to use either or both of chpwn’s Infini-tweaks. Infinidock lets you jam more stuff into your iPhone dock, as well as swipe through it like Springboard pages. Infiniboard allows vertical scrolling Springboard pages without the 16-icon limit, so you can finally jam all 50 of your iPhone games onto one page. Chpwn’s tweaks work quite nicely with Overboard.
Categories – Free: Essentially folder support for Springboard. Just create a category, fill it with apps, and then it appears like any other icon on your Springboard. Tapping on a Category will open it on a separate, scrollable page.
CategoriesSB – $0.99: A faster version of Categories, but a commercial tweak.
Stacks – still in beta, donation required for access: Like a flashier version of CategoriesSB, but it only allowed up to four stacks last time I used it. Visit Steven Troughton Smith’s website for more information, as well as the download links.
PogoPlank – $1.99: Described as a Springboard replacement, the current version of PogoPlank replaces the area above your iPhone dock with a spinning wheel and a set of folders. Like Categories, you still have to do a lot of manual set-up to get all of your apps into the folders, but once that’s done, you simply spin the wheel and then tap on a folder to see its contents. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work with Infinidock. Readers have pointed out that it works 
Thanks!
Kirikae – Free: Technically an app switcher, but can be set up with a large set of Favourite apps that you can launch at most any time. It isn’t as flashy as Stacks or PogoPlank, but it gets the job done very quickly, and you can call it up at any time with a hardware key.
If you have any other ideas for managing apps on the iPhone, please share them with us in the comments!
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice! but you forgot many awesome apps, iWipe Cache, Screen Recorder, iBlank, Mobile Terminal, Backgrounder. the first 3 you have are not that interesting for my iphone.
thanks for the round up. i just wanted to mention that i have had pogo plank and infinidock running together with no problems for a couple months now. i wasn't aware they conflicted.
True, True, but i still don't find any used for the first3 you mention, i don't really need them.
One you missed that I use heaps is MultiIconMover. Especially useful after installing Infiniboard.
I recently bought Overboard, it is really awesome. Infinidock is nice, Infiniboard I am waiting while the rough edges are worked on. Fivelrows is another one I recommend to help organise a bunch of apps.
I haven't tried Pogoplank so I'm waiting for version 2 (whenever it actually comes out)
Thanks Zan — trying MIM out today.
Great roundup! I've tried PogoPlank, but always seem to get pretty tired of it taking a couple spins, then a tap and sometimes scroll to get to the app I want … assuming I remember which folder I put the app in in the first place (my own personal issue, not PogoPlank's).
I've also used SpringJumps and Categories in the past and thought they were both great at what they did. Ultimately it came down to having too many MobileSubstrate things installed and my iPhone just got too slow. I then had to decide what to remove, and those were usually the first.
I REALLY liked Stacks, but had some issue that I can't currently recall. I think I had something else installed that was causing Springboard to go into safe mode frequently. I determined removing Stacks and whatever else it was seemed to make the problem go away, so I just haven't reinstalled Stacks. But it really was a great little organization tool. Keep a Stack or two in your dock and you've got instant access to about 90+% of the apps you use daily. Great stuff!
I'd like to try the Infini-tools, but not sure yet. Maybe I'll install them on my wife's 3GS (instead of my 3G) to test, since it seems more capable of handling more MobileSubstrate apps.
Again, thanks for the list!
I'm glad you found it helpful, teejay! Cheers!
On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 2:00 PM, Ragart <ragart@gmail.com> wrote:
approve
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